With Mayor, WPCA Supporting $5 to $6 Million Plan, BOE Backs Water Connection

The Board of Education has endorsed a town plan that would have Montville High School and Tyl Middle School connected to the WPCA at a cost of roughly $5 to $6 million. The proposal, in preliminary stages, would go to the voters in a referendum.

Last fall, the water at Montville High School was discovered to contain manganese at what state department of public health engineer Vicky M. Carrier said Tuesday was the highest level she has ever seen.

The WPCA-schools hook-up is necessitated by the water contamination issue; treatment, while considered, was been found to be not viable, Carrier said. And any plan to go with other water companies would prove too costly, Superintendent Pamela Aubin said. 

“We have discussed every possible option,” she said.

At the meeting, Montville Mayor Ron McDaniel and WPCA administrator Brian Lynch made the case for the connection.

“Looking at this even separate from the manganese …was a good opportunity to hook up to a quality system,” McDaniel said. The project would see a water line from the intetsection of routes 32 and 163 along Rt. 163 to Chesterfield Road ending at the high school and middle school. McDaniel said it will "promote economic growth on the Route 163 corridor.”

And Lynch said that the WPCA can spare the water. It currently draws about 1.9 million gallons a day from the Groton reservoir and supplies about 500,000 in town and 1 million to Mohegan Sun with 400,000 left over – just enough for the schools.

But not everyone was on board.

Tom McNally, BOE secretary and former WPCA employee, said the plan would cost well over the touted $5 to $6 million, would be a water line "to nowhere" and would benefit very few save for a property owner on Rt. 163 looking to build condos. He called the plan “fiscally irresponsible.”

And member Steven Loiler said he doubted the taxpayers would support such a proposal.

“Look what happened after town wide trash pick up (failed) and that was peanuts. I can’t imagine pitching $6 million to them,’ he said.

The board voted 6 in favor, two opposed and one abstention.

McDaniel said he’d now bring the plan forward to the Town Council and ultimately, the voters.